The Journey Towards Raising Children in Faith | Pastor Ben Burnett | Matthew 19:13-15

The following resource is brought to you by Real Life Community Church in Richmond, Kentucky.

We hope you're both challenged and encouraged by this message.

We're going to talk just a little bit about Matthew, and so if you have your Bibles, go ahead and be turned.

And we're Matthew, chapter 19, this morning, starting in verse 13.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Oh, and this morning this sermon is titled that which Is Valuable.

So if you're one of those note takers, that which is valuable.

In case you don't know who I am, I'll go ahead and introduce myself.

My name is Ben Burnett.

I'm one of the elders here at the church and I am a Chiava missionary, if you're like, cool bro, what's that?

A Chiava missionary is a person who is ordained by the assemblies of God to go out and reach our college and university campuses, and so me and my wife have been appointed by the district of Kentucky to go and do that here in Richmond, and so our primary mission field is Eastern Kentucky University.

We love college students.

We always have.

It's something that we've been passionate about since we graduated, mostly because those were our best years and we don't want to move on, and I'm just kidding.

But we love college students, and so I'm so glad that we blessed our college students this morning in prayer.

And what I will ask you today is, as this week begins, monday is day one of EKU classes.

So if you would just pray for them and remember that there's a whole lot of good things that go on on campus.

My wife was saved at EKU.

I was discipled at EKU.

You know we always think of the negative things of college students and things, but there's also really good things that they do and ask really good questions and they love Jesus.

A lot of them do and some of them don't, and we want to help those people love Jesus and so pray for them.

Pray for us as this semester starts, because we want the favor of God to fall on EKU.

I would love it if they had to change the name one day.

This is just a little side note and it's free.

I would love it if they had to change the name one day to Eastern Kentucky University, but we'll just, we'll throw it out there.

That's the goal, and so, anyway, today we're talking about Matthew, chapter 19, and we're talking about children, and so how many of you know that when you work with kids, there's some interesting things that occur.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Every once in a while, my teachers in the room say amen, or oh my, you know what I'm talking about.

In case you don't know, I used to teach third grade and then I was a computer lab teacher for a while.

I taught some special ed, did a whole bunch of stuff, and when I was a computer lab teacher, in particular what happened was my computer lab was.

The school was kind of arranged in an H, an H shape, and so you had two parallel hallways with one that connected in the middle, and my computer lab was right in the middle and there were bathrooms.

They were single bathrooms but they were for the whole school to use, right across the door from my computer labs.

And so one day I'm in my computer lab and this happened all the time, right Like I'd walk out and I'd hear a kid singing or just whatever.

I'd walk out and there'd be a kid sitting on the toilet with the door open, because kindergarten was right down the hallway and they would send their kids down a lot to come use those restrooms and they'd stand there and watch and they didn't realize that the door was open.

And so I'd walk out and there'd be a kid and they'd be like hi, mr Burnett, I'd just be like honey, I'd shut the door and we'd talk about it.

You know, you know anyway, you're not at home.

And so one day I hear someone singing as I'm walking out of my room and I know, I know what's going on.

This kid's using the bathroom with the door open because that's for some reason.

That's just what happens when you hear singing in the bathroom.

That's what's going on.

So I walk out and it's my planning time, and I walk out and there's this kid Not on the toilet, she is playing in the magic fountain.

That's what she called it.

That would also be known as the urinal.

I'm sorry, it is not nice, but I'll go ahead and just tell you that's what she was doing.

She was flushing and she was like playing in the water.

You know, because she never seen one before and no one had bothered to teach her that that's what this was.

And so I asked what are you doing?

You know, because that's the proper reaction when someone's you know.

And so she says, mr Burnett, I'm playing in the magic fountain.

And I said magic fountain?

She said, yes, we all do it.

And I said how do you know that?

And she said because we all talk about it.

We don't know what this thing is, but it's really cool.

You just press this handle, mr Burnett, and water just pours out of the top.

Have you ever seen the magic fountain?

And after I picked myself up off the floor, I said honey, who's your teacher?

And her teacher was one of my best friends in the whole world Actually, it's the wife of one of my best friends in the whole world.

Her name is Mary Shank.

And she said Miss Shank is my teacher.

And I said okay, let's wash your hands and let's go back to class.

And so we did.

We washed her hands, we walked back to class and I said Miss Shank, may I see you for a moment?

And she steps out and I said I need to tell you something.

So I told her and you know the reaction is no, uh, oh yeah, oh yeah, that happened.

So then we proceeded to walk back in her class and go kids, how many of you know about the magic fountain?

Every hand in the room shot up.

How many of you played in the magic fountain?

Every hand in the room shot up.

It is important to teach your kids the most basic of lessons for life.

That is what I learned that day and that is what we are going to talk about just a little bit today.

Today we're in Matthew, chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Again.

It's verse 13.

It is a passage that maybe, maybe, maybe not hopefully, you're better than I am, but maybe you would see as one of those quick little like whatever's.

Oh, we've already talked about this once, and we did.

We talked about you know Jesus and the children and how they're valuable, and so you'd be like, oh, I'm just going to it's three verses, then we're going to move on to something great.

We're going to talk about the rich, young ruler.

But how many of you know you shouldn't skip over even the smallest of passages because there's so much value in there.

And so today, that's what we're talking about.

I love the way Jesus has his timing all laid out perfectly, because you cannot have a better message than right before school starting talking about children.

And so we've been, in case you don't know, we've been systematically walking through the book of Matthew.

This just happened to fall on this day, so it's really cool, and so I've talked enough to say if you would stand and honor the reading of the word, and let's read Matthew, chapter 19, starting in a verse 13,.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

It'll be on the screen as well.

It says this then children were brought to him that he may lay his hands on them and pray that disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

And he laid his hands on them and went away.

That is the word of the Lord, and you may be seated, small and mighty passage that we have today, three verses of the text, and, just so you know, I have four points from three verses.

It's that jam packed with cool stuff, and so today, if you're sitting there and you are a note taker, let me just go ahead and give you the main point.

If there's anything that I want you to get out of this sermon today, it is this.

It is.

Let's try that again.

If that's the word, if it is valuable to God, it should be valuable to us.

Today we're going to be talking about if it is valuable to God, it should be valuable to us, and so what you could say, that is that you should value what God values with the same intensity with which he values it.

And so if the Lord deems this thing to be worth $10, just to put it in our terms and he deems this thing to be worth $1,000, we should value the thing that's worth $1,000 in the Lord's currency just a little bit more, and that's what we're looking at today.

Today, we're talking about children, and it's so amazing that when you see children in the Bible brought to Jesus, jesus always has time for kids.

In this particular case, you see that the disciples are trying to keep those people from bringing the children to Jesus because Jesus has more important things to do, right?

No, jesus always had time for little kids, and so if Jesus can take time out of his busy, busy schedule For children, so should we, and if he values in that much, so should we.

Today, as we break down this passage, three short verses, but three amazing and impactful things that we can pull out of it.

Actually four I said four and I was, I wasn't lying to you for amazing, impactful things we can pull out of it.

Number one what's the first thing that we see in this passage of scripture?

Verse 13 again says then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray.

Point number one if you're taking notes, you should bring your children to Jesus.

Now you're like cool pastor Ben, I don't have kids.

I'm gonna check out taking that.

Wake me up when I'm done If you are sitting here and you don't have kids, guess what?

Still your job.

Still your job to help people or to help bring children to Jesus.

That may not be your kids, but we'll talk a little bit more about that here in just a minute, so don't check out on me just yet.

But, parents, if you're sitting here and you're going, what's the main point of this past?

Well, what's one of the points of this passage?

Number one you should bring your kids to Jesus.

I Don't know who these people were, by the way.

It doesn't say.

It doesn't say that they were there kids.

That's the funny part.

I kind of suspect.

I don't know.

I'm just gonna make a conjecture.

I kind of suspect their grandparents maybe not be not, grandparents are always like trying to get the best for their grandkids.

You know, they spoil their grandkids.

My mother does this.

She, she lets my nephews get away with stuff I haven't never gotten away with.

That's what happens to grandma.

I bet grandparent.

I bet grandma was like baby, come here, we're gonna go find Jesus and we're gonna get you a blessing, and so you know she packs him up in the car, whatever.

I'm just kidding.

But some very smart people brought their kids to Jesus, and I would urge you to be just like those people.

You should do just what they did, because the best blessing that you could ever give your kids is a life With Jesus Christ and in afterlife, and eternal life with Jesus Christ, their Savior.

You know it's funny, we work and we, you know, 60 hour work weeks and we bend over backwards and we break our necks to try to get our kids in every event and every sport and everything coming and going.

We try to make sure that they have all the things and all the stuff that they need.

We were in a store last night target, don't judge me, but we were there looking for lunch boxes because We'd looked everywhere all across the country and could not find a lunchbox.

That Is cute enough that my wife could take it.

I'm just kidding, I love you.

And so we're on our way back from Kentucky School of Ministry we were in Louisville yesterday and and so we're like, hey, we're passing by Lexington, let's just stop and see if they have any lunchbox.

So we go in and man this, there's this guy and his wife and they're like six girls, yeah, yeah, there you go and and like you know, oh, I'm sorry, I know, nope, nope, nope, nope.

They had five girls on one boy because the little boy I remember.

He ran out and he's like mommy, I need this.

And he was like I don't remember what he's holding.

And the mom's like, no honey, we were doing we're getting these things, we're not getting that.

And then, like these, like girls are like look at this, this is the cutest lunchbox in the world.

Have you seen these markers?

Then I'm like Whoo, that's a lot.

You know we bend over backwards to make sure they can have the cute lunchboxes and the markers and the things.

But the best thing you could ever Do is to bring your kids to Jesus.

And so how do you do that this morning?

Just a couple of Application points.

Deuteronomy 4 9 I think we've got that one on the screen as well says only take care and Keep your soul diligently lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life.

Make them known to your children and your children's children.

So, grandparents, that's okay, to help your grandkids find Jesus as well.

That's cool.

And in this passage it tells us a couple of things that are really important.

I know this is an old testament passage, but it still applies to the believer that today, and the first thing it says is only take Care and keep your soul diligently.

As far as it depends on you.

The first thing that you have to do if you want to help your kids come to Jesus is you have to come to Jesus yourself.

And not only do you have to come to Jesus yourself, but you have to be one of those real followers of Jesus that we talk about.

Kids know.

Kids know what's important to you, right?

They know that UK basketball is Important to you.

They know that your Facebook page is important to you.

They should know that you value them as well.

And so what else should they know that you value?

They should know you value Jesus.

Dina.

We were talking over this, the sermon on in the car on the way back, because Dina helps me with all my good points and they flop, it's me.

If they're good, that's her.

But we were talking about it in the car on the way back and and she said you know?

She said I used to see my mom.

I get up every morning before I would get up and I would.

When I would wake up in the morning, I would go out to the kitchen and she would be sitting there with her Bible and she would read it every morning.

She said I knew it was important.

I knew that this was something that I should do too, and so we actually We've been helping her dad's about to move, and so we we found her Bible that she always used to read the other day and it's so neat.

Just to number one, it's things falling apart.

It's from.

It was printed in 1941, it was her grandmother's Bible, before it was her mother's Bible and as you look through it has all these helps and all these notes and all these handwritten things that are in there.

It's easy to see that she valued it just by the shape of her Bible.

Right, and with Dina, one of the things that sticks out to her about her mother was her mother's faith.

Your kids will know what you value.

And so Deuteronomy when it says take care and keep your soul diligently lest you forget it's important Number one, before you can bring your kids to Jesus, you got to be there first.

Number two it also says make them known to your children and your children's children.

There's another passage.

If you flip just a few chapters over in Deuteronomy, it's Deuteronomy 6, or chapter 6, verse 4.

It says here oh Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

By the way, if you're sitting there and you're going, I feel like I know this.

Jesus quotes this as the most important commandment in all of Scripture here oh Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and so talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise, you should talk about that Scripture stuff with your kids.

Now you may be sitting there and you're like Pastor Ben, I don't know a whole lot about Scripture stuff, like I don't know where all this stuff is that you talk about.

Cool, I'm starting the beginning.

Read all the way through.

Talk to it with your kids.

Talk about it when you're sitting there on the couch and you're like, whoa, what do we have to do?

We've got 20 minutes.

Hey, I was reading this thing in the Bible.

Well, you think about it, little young.

Talk about it when you're on your way to sports events and you know that kids got soccer practice for the 28th time this week.

Talk about it when you're on the way and when you pick them up when you're on your way home.

Talk about it when something bad happens.

And, by the way, I felt the spirit just smack me.

I've heard this before talking to a very important friend of mine.

That friend said you know, bad things happen all the time.

They're in a job where bad things happen.

We'll just say that they're a first responder and man, I just have a hard time.

Going to church and hearing people talk about Jesus is so amazing.

And you talk to people and you say, how are you?

And you know they've been going through stuff and Jesus is so amazing.

They have a hard time with the fact that it just sometimes seems fake.

But can I urge you, if you're sitting there today and you've been going through hard times, can I urge you that that last song we sang is absolutely true, that he fights our battles for us.

It may not be one of those things that is easy to get through, but it's one of those things that Jesus will get you through if you'll rely on him.

You know, I think about that family with a two-year-old child and I can't imagine that either.

The Bible doesn't say that bad things will ever happen, but it does tell us that he will get us through in the worst of times.

You just have to rely on him, and it may take a long time.

Pastor Chris quoted one of my favorite verses in Scripture, the, and it was that's King James, that's the way I memorized it too.

The fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man of Valothmuch, as it is working.

And so much.

So many times people forget the last little part, the as it is working.

Sometimes it takes some time for those prayers to work.

Sometimes it's not overnight like we want it to be.

But man, god, does amazing things if we'll just rely on him, and so anyway, that one's free as well.

Not in my notes, I just I really felt unctioned.

You know what I mean.

But anyway, I got to hurry up because it's almost time to go and I'm not even through point one yet.

So keep your own soul.

Talk to your kids about the Lord, bring them to church, talk to them about the things that you've done wrong, and here's why, here's what the Scripture says about that.

You shouldn't have lied and the Bible says you shouldn't bear false witness.

Talk to them when they get in trouble and talk to them when they do good.

Talk to them about the Scriptures and show them that you care.

If you keep reading, it says then the children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray.

The disciples rebuked the people.

But whatever you see, but in the Scriptures you should always pay attention because something's about to get turned on its head.

But Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

Point number two, if you're taking notes, is we should not hinder children from coming to Jesus Again.

As parents, you always work so hard to make sure that that they have what they need.

But are you there for them?

Your children need you more than they need the money that you earn from your job, and I'm not down in you if you're working hard for your family.

The Bible also says provide for your family we can talk about that later but be there for your kids.

Don't forget that their spiritual needs are important, and we talked about this already.

But what can, what do we do sometimes to hinder our kids from coming to Jesus?

Hypocrisy.

You know, there's that song by Rodney Adkins yes, it's a country song, no, it's not a Christian song, but some of you know it.

You know that song I've been watching you, you know and he's driving along and he slams on his brakes and spills his orange drink all over the kid's lap and he says that four little word.

You know that's that whole song and he says words.

You learn that basically.

And in the song he says I learned it from you, dad, ain't that cool.

Been watching you, you know the whole thing, your kids watch you, and so I know that I beat that that horse into the ground.

But again, I just want to reiterate you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be there, man.

You have people at church, you have elders and pastors and friends and all that stuff, all those people that want to help you.

And so if you're like I don't know enough about the scriptures to talk about it with my kids, just talk about it.

And when they have questions that you don't know, it's okay to say I don't know, come ask us, bring your kid, ask me, we'll talk about it all day long.

I don't care, don't ask country he's kind of grumpy, I'm just kidding.

But but no talk with.

Talk with your kids about the scriptures.

Number two your attitude is also very important.

Ephesians 6, 4 says fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

And can I?

Can I just say something?

I don't have kids, but the scriptures are.

The scriptures are just as timely, regardless if I have children or not.

One of the things that I would urge you to do is to discipline your kids.

You're gonna say, pastor Ben, I thought you thought you told me not to provoke them to anger.

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't know what to expect?

Literally, last night, they have a state police checkpoint at the end of my road, and so, as we're driving up from that very same trip that I was just talking about, state police are out and I pull up, and when I pull up, there's a the police car is in the lane that I'm supposed to be pulling through.

You know, it's in the right side of the road, and then there's another one across, and so when I pull up, I have to get into the wrong lane to pull up beside the police car and the two guys are out and I'm like, but if I pull into the wrong lane, does that mean that I'm gonna get a ticket for being on the wrong side of the road?

And I'm like, well, no, duh, that's stupid.

And then, like I'm pulling up and I stop and they're up there and I'm like, okay, well, I'm stopped at the stop sign now, like the point of the intersection where I'm at, but they're not waving me on.

So I'm like, what do I do now?

You know, if you're ever been in that situation where you just don't know what to expect and don't know what to do and it Kind of makes you feel just a little bit nervous.

I've been in classrooms my own where, when I was first-year teacher, it's really hard, where you don't teach them every little thing, like the magic fountain.

You don't teach them every little thing like when do you need to sharpen your pencil and how do you Approach it.

You forget sometimes, as your, as a teacher, that the smallest of things are important, but you have to teach them.

The first week is really teaching them procedures and everything that they should do and how to do it in your Class so that they should be successful.

Same thing with your kids at home.

They should know what to expect and how to expect it.

And the way that you do that is discipline, and Sometimes discipline is not pleasant.

But be fair and consistent and discipline your kids.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned from my mother, by the way, when I was a kid, was one time my mom, I just took it too far.

You know what I mean.

Like she was angry and God bless her.

She was a single mom with two boys who broke everything in her house.

But you know, she said, and I she was.

I've talked to her about it later.

She brought it up.

I don't, we were talking about my nephews, I think her so.

Anyway, point is she brought it up.

She was like, yeah, she said I remember when you all were kids, I, you know you get mad and you're like I'm taking away everything that you have and you'll never eat again and then I'm gonna kick you every day for good measure.

She wasn't like that, but I'm just being, you know, whatever.

But anyway, she said you know there are times you just get so frustrated and you should take it too far.

Can I tell you, parent, it's okay to apologize to your kids.

Sometimes I'm sorry I took it too far, but doesn't mean that you didn't do the wrong thing.

And here's your consequence and all the stuff right?

Proverbs 226 says this.

It says train up a child in the way he should go.

Even when he's old, he will not depart from it.

It's important.

The wisdom of Proverbs Tells us that we should train a child in the way that he should go, and when he's older, he won't depart.

Proverbs 2917 discipline your son and he will give you rest.

He will give delight to your heart.

I think that applies just as much to your daughters, by the way.

I don't know.

I'm just gonna say that.

Proverbs 1324 whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline.

Now, what is that rod that it's talking about?

Does that mean that that when papo made me used to go get my own switch, that that was okay?

It was, it was.

But can I tell you the rod in scripture often is representative of shepherds and If you remember, like Psalm 23 for instance, I rod and my staff.

That comfort me.

What's the difference?

The staff Was the thing that was there to pull you back.

It was the big long stick.

It was the thing that helped the shepherd walk.

It was also the thing that helped him corral a bunch of sheep at one time.

The rod was the correction instrument.

It was the flimsy stick.

Y'all remember the flimsy switch, some you do.

It was the flimsy stick.

It was the one that it was just enough to get the sheep's attention.

The rod is important.

It doesn't mean that you should beat, beat your kids and be mean to him, but it does mean that correction is important and that there are times when we just need a little something To get us back on the right path.

That was the purpose of the rod, and so let's continue.

I've talked enough about that.

Verse 14 again says but Jesus said let the little children come to me and Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

And he laid his hands on them and went away.

Point number three is to value what Jesus values.

This was the thing that I said was the main point of the whole passage.

Anyway.

We need to value what Jesus values of Jesus may time for little children.

So should we?

Can I just stop and give you a shameless plug for just a minute with kids ministry.

So you know I told a story about being at school and teaching, but we as elders have been teaching fourth, fifth and sixth grade.

That's where pastor Chris went, if you heard him earlier, he said hey, fourth, fifth and sixth graders, follow me out.

We've been teaching our, our kids, and man, it's so much fun.

They ask such good questions.

Kids ministry Is one of those things that I wish I had more time for, if I'm honest, now that I've been in it for a little bit, because kids are just a blessing.

Sometimes, kids, they say the darnedest things, but they also ask the best questions.

You know I was Thinking to myself as I was preparing this message.

This would be the perfect time to just Urge you, if you're sitting there and you're like, hey, what can I do for church?

Go be involved in our kids ministry so often we talk about, you know, like, oh, it's scary, it's really not.

Kids are really the most fun things ever and you know, if you can't control them all, that's okay.

Just love them and help them with their, their questions and lead them to Jesus the best you can.

It'll bless you just as much as it blesses them.

Anyway, I'm gonna move on.

Psalm 127, 3.

It says behold, children are heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward.

And listen to this.

I thought this was really cool.

Verse 4 like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the children of one's youth Blesses the man who fills his quiver with them.

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Now You're sitting there and you may be going.

What are you talking about?

What does it mean?

That the kids are arrows in the quiver of a warrior?

For one day your kids are gonna leave and they're gonna go out into the world.

And if any of you have ever sat there and went, man, this world is In such bad shape.

And what are we gonna do?

And I need to, you know, and just circle the wagons right and bring my kids in close and Teach them and and hold on to them and not let the world mess with them.

Guess what?

One day they're gonna have to leave.

They are, and you know what's great about that.

You want to change the world.

Teach your kids the way they should go.

Bible says, when they're all they want, to park and then send them out into the world.

Send them out into the world.

Let your Christian kids go.

Help non-christians come to Jesus, because I'll guarantee that you can't reach everybody on this planet.

I'll guarantee that your kids can't.

But you know what?

The more people we have out there, the better off we are.

The more we instill Christian values into our kids, the more they can help, and still those into others.

That's why we do college ministry.

You know, it's amazing if you and I'm almost done, but if you look at how Chi Alpha tells people to do ministry, it almost makes no sense.

We don't look at big events and and having huge mega church Chi Alpha's.

What we look at is we look at reaching five to seven people.

It's a small group and so you bring five to seven people along and you disciple, and it may start with one, and you just keep going and you teach them about the scriptures and you know you find those who aren't saved, who need to be saved, or those who are nominal, who need Jesus, or those who love Jesus, and you just want to help them and you keep working with them and you know what will happen if it's done right.

Those five to seven will then go on and hopefully be small group leaders themselves.

And if you have five people and you, and then the next year, those five go reach five and you, and then the next year, all of those people go reach all of five and you and you keep going.

But you know that you can, you can, you can be a Billy Graham million salvations a year and in 10 years 10 years you will reach more people by reaching five, who then reach five, who then reach five, than if you see a million salvations a year in big, large crusades.

How do we change the world?

We don't change the world by just going and and shotgun preaching the gospel to everybody and their brother.

We change the world, as Jesus said, by making disciples, training them to do everything that Jesus commanded and baptize them.

Behold, jesus is with us always, to the end of the ages.

What Matthew 28 says, we'll get there in 10 years if we're lucky.

Value what Jesus values.

I said this earlier and and I meant it there are.

Even if you're not a parent, you can still be a part of helping a kid raise up in the way that they should go.

When I was younger, I was in college.

At this point I think I don't know.

I was a young guy anyway, and I was reading this book.

It was called Velvet Elvis.

It was by Rob Bell.

Don't judge me, I know that Rob Bell is a heretic, but I was reading this book called Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, and Rob Bell had put out these videos they're called Newman videos and he talked about all these spiritual concepts and, man, he just seemed to know everything.

And so I was reading this book by him and in this book this was the first book he ever put out he attends this homosexual ceremony and he's talking about how love is beautiful and all these things.

And and you know, I'm I'm carrying this book actually into church with me, along with my Bible and stuff, because I was going to show it to some of my friends.

It's like this book's really cool, but I didn't realize that that's what it was talking about in that particular passage.

Right, I was just, you know, reading it and it's talking about forgiveness and it's talking about all these other concepts too, but there's some really bad theology mixed in there.

And so I'm carrying this book and I'm walking into church and there was an older guy in the congregation I known him for years.

He stops me and he says, hey.

He said what do you know about that book that you're carrying?

And I said yeah, I'm reading it.

It's pretty cool.

It's by this guy named Rob Bell.

He does all these Newman videos and you know, and I'm telling him all about it.

And he said Ben.

He said, does your mom know what you're reading?

And I said I said yeah, but she's never read it either.

So you know, I'm just reading it and we're going to see.

You know, he, but he puts out these Newman videos and they're great, and so what he does is he he.

He says, hey, why don't you come in here for a minute?

So we walk in church and we sit down and like the, we had like, you know, like lobby fellowship areas at the time.

And so we sit down, like the little lobby fellowship area thing and and we start walking through that, he's like, hey, look at this part right here, you know, like this, this section talking about homosexual marriage, like it's, it's not scriptural, and I'm like really, and he goes, yeah, and I knew that.

But you know, I didn't realize that this guy who you know I'd seen all these videos and he's telling me that you know, like I should be covered in the dust of my rabbi, which means I should be just like Jesus and all this stuff.

I didn't know that this guy was also writing these horrible things in this book.

And who knows how I would have ended up if this one guy hadn't sat me down and said you know, that may be great, but he's not preaching the Bible in his book.

Who knows if I hadn't ended up.

You know one of those pastors who go oh, it's okay to ordain homosexual clergy, because I wouldn't have known if it wouldn't have been for this guy who sat me down and said look, the Bible is the source of authority.

Jesus values children and he makes one final statement here that we can't forget and we can't glaze over, and it's so important.

He says let the children, the little children, come to me in verse 14 and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

If you're taking notes, point number four is we must have childlike faith.

When we look at the scriptures, what we see repeatedly we saw this in Matthew, chapter 18, then we see this over and over and over again we must have childlike faith in the Lord.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

When you look at faith, one of the things that Hebrew says is that in order to please God, we must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.

We want to please God, you must believe that he rewards those who exist and who diligently seek him.

When you think about childlike faith being a kid, you gotta remember it was.

Were you ever worried that your parents, for instance, weren't gonna feed you as a kid?

If you were, by the way, I'm sorry, I know that there are some bad parents out there, but for the most part, most people that I talked to were like no, I never had that worry or fear in my heart at all, you know, and my mom, even though she was a single mom, like I, never sat there as a kid and went.

Mom's just gonna get mad at me one day and just kick me out.

She's gonna just stop feeding me.

My mom is just whatever you know.

The Bible talks about that, for instance, in Matthew 7, in verse 9, it says or which of you, if his son asked him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asked for a fish, will give him a serpent.

If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?

I think that kind of gives us a hint at childlike faith.

You know, childlike faith?

What it does is it knows that God's gonna provide and that's good enough.

It doesn't doubt and it doesn't fear.

Childlike faith doesn't look at God and go oh, I've got to be good enough to be in the family of God, right, I don't.

I never had to worry about being good enough to be my mother's child.

I may have driven her nuts every single day, in case you said amen, they have driven her nuts every single day, but you know what?

She still loved me and she still cared for me.

No matter what, childlike faith is one of those things that doesn't make you have to strive to earn your way into heaven.

We talk about that all the time around here.

But, man, childlike faith doesn't mean that I have to be good enough, just means I have to come into my father and my father will take care of me.

If you're sitting out there and you're going, man, I don't.

I don't know about this thing.

Pastor Ben, I had a bad childhood.

It's great that you're talking about how we should be, but, man, my dad was a nut, I understand, but you have a heavenly father who loves you.

My dad left when I was three I get it and he was not the nicest person in the world when he was around, so I was, you know.

Looking back on it, it's probably a blessing that he left.

But regardless of the situation that you came from, you have a heavenly father who wants to take care of you, and if you don't know what a dad looks like, man, he can show you Promise.

I've been living this faith thing now for 20 years.

20 years.

20 years makes me sound old.

It's not the easiest thing, man.

It's the best thing.

You don't never have bad times.

You'll have bad times, man.

There's nothing better than a God who loves you and cares for you even in the midst of all of it.

As Pastor Ben, can I just be transparent with you?

Sometimes you, uh, as a pastor I don't know, maybe I'm the only one, I bet I'm not Sometimes, as a pastor, you, you have a tendency to think that, oh, I didn't pray enough about this passage.

Oh, I didn't do this.

Oh, I didn't do that.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, I didn't.

I forgot to call that congregant this week.

Oh I'm here.

God's going to be so mad at me.

I should have done that thing, you know?

Oh, what if they?

You know, you just keep going?

Childlike faith says you know what?

I'm just going to come to my father and we're going to work it out.

And if you're sitting there right now, I promise you, if you'll come to the father, y'all can work it out.

He brought his own son His name was Jesus To be the sacrifice for our sins, to take the punishment that we deserved, so that we could have life, so that we could be adopted into the family of God.

Yes, we may not have the perfect family life here on this earth, but man, the family of God, it's something.

So here's what I urge you If you're sitting there today and you don't know you're not in the family of God, it's there for you.

All you have to do is come to Jesus, believe that he died and was buried and rose again.

You have to choose that he is going to be Lord of your life forever, which means that if there's anything that he would ask you to do, to give up to whatever that, you'll do it.

The Bible tells us to count the cost, but you know what, if you'll come to Jesus, if you come to the father, y'all can work it out.

Amen, kind of pray for you.

Heavenly Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ, the name that's above every name, and Lord, we just love you and we're so thankful, father.

We're thankful for grace that adopts us into the family of God, that takes whatever was on this earth and flips it on its head, that, no matter what happens here, we have a Father who loves us.

And so, lord, I pray that if there are parents here who want to be better parents, you'd help them to be so, father.

If there are parents out there who want their kids to be saved, well, we pray that you'd make it so, father.

If there are those of us out here who are children who need a father, we pray that you would come and be our Father.

In the name of Jesus, lord, we love you so much, amen.

Thank you for listening.

If you'd like to know more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you have questions about our church, you can email us at info at myrealchurchorg.

Real Life Community Church is located at 335 Glendon Avenue in Richmond, kentucky.

We invite you to join us for worship Sunday at 10.45 am or Wednesday at 7 pm.

Visit us online at myrealchurchorg.